The Wild Cat of Dirgelmor
by Themonkeyranger
Summary: When Rocket finds a book about a mythical creature in the village shop, he and his friends go on a quest to find it... Set late season 2
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Rocket Boulsworth, Jade, Brandon, Archie and Dibber (with Wayne the II) were in the Ballabungie village shop. Jade was cuddling Wayne the II, Archie just sat there looking at The Oldest Man in the World aka Dibber's granddad, Brandon was examining the stuff in the back room, Rocket was browsing Dibs' granddad's bookshelf and Dibber was looking out the window to see if he could spot Bethany Summer. Suddenly Rocket shouted with excitement (making Wayne the II bark with fright), "Look at this book, everyone!"

The others crowded around Rocket in curiosity. What had Rocket found? It was a book, filled with information about a creature that lived on Dirgelmor. "It's about The Wild Cat of Dirgelmor, a mythical creature they say lives on our island." Rocket eagerly explained to the equally keen others.

"We have to tell Alli about this!" Jade added.

As they went to the door, Dibs' granddad said, "You can borrow it for a while, but watch out, it's –" but he didn't get any further because Rocket and his friends had gone.

Outside, in the sunshine, Dibber thought for a moment then shouted with delight, "Finally, I will show Bethany Summer that I, Dibber Sparks, am not an idiot in her eyes!"

At the Knot, Rocket and his friends were racing up to Alli, full of beans. "What is it that you're _so_ desperate to tell me?" Alli said grumpily. She wasn't looking at them, just getting on with her chores.

"Alli, you'll never guess what! We've found out that there's a wild cat of Dirgelmor," Dibber quickly said.

Alli seemed impressed. "Wow! A wild cat of Dirgelmor! That's amazing. I want to see it."

Rocket looked at everyone. They were all so enthusiastic about the creature that he couldn't turn them down. "All right," he said at last, "We'll look for it tomorrow."

Dibber looked at him in confusion. "We can't go tomorrow!" he said in realization, "We're at school. If we skipped all our lessons, just to look for this creature, our parents will be looking for _us_ instead!"

"Let's go after school then." Rocket pointed out.

At school the next day, Dibber was telling their classmates about The Wild Cat of Dirgelmor. "I'm telling you guys, it's real!"

"Oh yeah, and what's it going to do to you? Attack you?" sneered Jonathan.

"As if!" Rocket rolled his eyes.

"I don't know if it's real, but we're going to prove to you that it exists!" shouted Jade.

Archie stared at Jonathan and wasn't sure that it was real, but he was willing to help Rocket and the others look for it.

It was after school and later on, at the Knot, Dibber was just walking up the road with his bicycle. He saw Peter Boulsworth, getting on his daily jobs. "Hi, Mr Boulsworth," he said cheerfully, "Where's Rocket and the others then?"

"They're getting on with their chores. They should be finished in about half an hour."

The next minute Dibber saw Rocket, with Wayne the II on a lead and Jade walk past with buckets of cow feed. "I'm ready to go." he said enthusiastically.

"Dibs! Can't you see that we're in the middle of doing our chores right now?" argued Rocket.

"I'll help you out. What can I do, Mr Boulsworth?" Dibber asked.

"You can help me with shovelling the cow dung out." Peter Boulsworth said optimistically. He and Sarah were always in need of an extra pair of hands. So Dibber helped out with the manure.

Before long, all the chores were done. "Now we can go and look for the creature!" exclaimed Dibber excitedly. Rocket packed a bag with things that would be useful, including the book. They all then hurried off in the direction of the countryside.

"The book says that the creature is as big as a tiger!" Rocket cried with interest, as they were walking away from the Knot. "It also says that its eyes were like discs in the sun, and its coat markings were horizontal stripes."

"Isn't that a marbled cat?" asked Alli.

"And, look! It has ears of a lynx! It likes climbing trees, like a leopard, and living near water, just like a jaguar." Rocket continued. They were getting deep into the forest now. "It also has teeth that are as sharp as stanley knives."

"Isn't that a lemur?" questioned Brandon. Rocket took no notice and kept on reading. "Its tail is as long as a snow leopard's!"

Next they all looked at Dibber, who was slowly walking, and staring into space. "Are you thinking about Bethany Summer again?" cooed Jade.

Unfortunately, Dibber tripped over a rock.

"Are you all right?" probed Alli.

"Yeah, sure." replied Dibber. "I'm not thinking about Bethany Summer! I was trying to picture the creature. I can see it now, except that it looks a bit…grey."

"FYI, Dibs, is that is the same colour as a cheetah." Rocket explained.

"Are you sure you're not making it up, Rocket?" Alli asked.

"If you really want to know, then have a look at it." Rocket retorted. He passed Alli the book.

"Rocket! This is a fiction book!" she replied crossly.

"What?" shouted Rocket in total shock, snatching the volume from her hands to see what had caused her to say such a thing.

"It's not real?" squeaked Jade.

"Great," cursed Dibber. "This is so not going to impress Bethany Summer."

"Um, Rocket," said Alli, peering around. "Where exactly are we?"

Suddenly the gang fell into deep silence, especially Archie, but then again, he always was silent.

"Aah…" mused Rocket, "I don't know…"

It would have been appropriate at that moment for somebody to play a "wah wah wah wah wurgh" sound effect.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Twenty minutes had passed and Jade had now seated herself on a tree trunk with Brandon and Archie, whilst the others desperately searched through the book for a possible map of the forest with no avail. When Rocket got to the end page, he blew a giant raspberry and slapped it on the trunk.

"We are so doomed," groaned Dibber.

"I guess we'll have to revert to plan B," said Alli.

"And what's plan B?" enquired Rocket.

Alli ran her hand down the nearest tree. "Someone is going to have to climb up to get a better view."

"Any volunteers?" said Rocket.

For no apparent reason, all eyes were on Dibber.

"Me?" he spouted, taking this in, "Give me a leg up then, Rocky!"

"Alli-oops!" shouted Rocket, hoisting his friend onto a low branch.

Starting from this place, Dibber clambered higher and higher, until he reached the very top of the tree. He tried to think of what to yell, before he came up with, "HELP! HELP! CAN SOMEBODY HELP US? OLLY OLLY OXEN FREE!" Was anyone listening?

"What can you see up there?" called Jade.

"Trees, trees and more trees."

"That's not very helpful!" responded Rocket, with a hand covering his eyes.

"We should call 999 and ask for the mountain rescue team to come and rescue us!" suggested Jade.

"We're nowhere near a mountain range!" complained Brandon.

"We can't," said Dibber, "My mum confiscated my phone this morning, when she thought I was sending love texts to Bethany Summer during class – when it was actually Jonathan texting her pretending to be me."

The next minute Dibber realized that he couldn't get down again. "Err…guys…I think I'm stuck…" he called.

"Come down the way you came up," recommended Rocket.

"I can't do that!" replied Dibber in dismay, "I was given a leg up."

"I'll catch you then!" proposed Rocket, gesturing.

"Oh, no," groaned Dibber.

Rocket suddenly remembered that he'd brought a sheet to wrap Wayne the II with in an emergency. He shouted to the others, "I have an idea! We can use this sheet for Dibber to land in. If he jumps off, then we'll open the sheet and he'll land safely."

"What?" blasted Dibber, who couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You want me to jump off a branch?"

"Don't worry Dibs. We'll catch you," reassured Rocket. He passed the three other corners to Alli, Jade and Brandon.

"On the count of three, jump," said Alli, "One, Two, Three, JUMP!"

Dibber jumped, not wanting to stay up the tree any longer. Next minute, he was in the blanket. "Thanks, guys," he puffed, "but I don't want to climb another tree again."

"Rocket?" asked Alli, "Have you noticed that the blanket's red?"

"So it is," observed Rocket, "Hang on! We can use it as a sign of danger!"

"Rocket!" protested Jade, "No one will see it in this forest!"

Suddenly, they heard from a moderate distance, a rather disturbing sound. It was quite aggressive; much like the growl of a lion or a tiger. One thing for sure, the children felt their blood curdle.

"It's the Wild Cat of Dirgelmor!" yelped Jade.

Everyone scooted as fast as their legs would carry them, leaping over roots and stumps, desperate to get away from whatever was pursuing them.

Whilst Rocket was charging past the trees, he became aware of something most peculiar. If indeed it was the Wild Cat of Dirgelmor chasing them, then it appeared the wild cat had luminous eyes. He could see a circle of light shining upon him, akin to that created by the lamps on the front of a car. Was it really a monster following them?

Rocket took a leap of faith by bravely swiveling his head round to see who the real culprit was. He nudged Alli, who in turn also looked behind them. Before long, they realized it was no longer necessary to run.

Noticing their friends had paused in their flight, the others likewise gradually stopped.

"Jonathan Healey?" exclaimed Jade.

Sure enough, mounted upon Rocket's quad bike, was Jonathan, wearing Rocket's helmet, but his clothes distinguished who it was underneath. He pulled to a halt and flung off the helmet.

"You should have seen your faces!" he taunted, "I scared the pants off you!"

The others didn't think it was so funny.

"What are you riding my quad bike for?" said Rocket crossly.

"You moron left it lying around. I thought you could do with a little surprise."

Alli restrained Brandon from getting closer to the now guffawing Jonathan.

"Well thanks for that," said Rocket sarcastically, "Now you're as lost as the rest of us!"

"Lost?" mocked Jonathan, slipping his phone out his pocket, "Observe this! A HTC Wildfire with a built-in sat nav. Cool or what?"

"Can you get us home, Healey?"

"No chance! You're going to have to find your own way out the forest!"

"If you don't help us, I'm going to call PC Beddoe and tell him about the stolen property!"

A look of horror came upon Jonathan's face.

"You wouldn't!" he hissed.

"You bet we would!" reinforced Alli, "Lead us home – **now**."

Jonathan fumbled with his phone, until finally he turned on the sat nav.

"Don't panic, people! I've got it all sussed."

He told them their position and eventually Rocket figured out a way to get home.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

As Rocket and his friends followed Jonathan's directions, they found that they were coming closer to the Knot. It was just a couple of miles down the road when Rocket checked the sat nav again.

"Almost home," he assured the others.

They kept on walking. (Well, Rocket wasn't walking because if he was, who was going to take his quad bike home?) When they finally did see the Knot, they found that there was a small group of people gathered near the door. Rocket gulped. He'd realised that it was all their parents! Rocket and the gang picked up speed, racing towards the small entourage in the farmyard.

"Rocket! Alli! Where have you been?" Sarah cried.

"We've been looking everywhere for you!" said Peter.

"Daniel Sparks!" shouted Wendy, who was part of the gathering, "This is the last straw!"

Dibber groaned noisily.

"Jonathan!" exclaimed Mrs Healey, "You are so grounded for this!"

"What? What? I didn't do anything!" defended Jonathan.

"How about stealing William Boulsworth's quad bike?"

Jonathan cringed. He'd been certain that no one would notice!

"What have we here, Jonathan Healey?" spoke up PC Beddoe.

_Noooooooooo!_ thought Jonathan.

…

"So, how was your Wild Cat of Dirgelmor hunting today?" enquired Sarah over the dinner table that evening.

"Well, we nearly got completely lost in the middle of the woods," said Rocket, "_And_ Jonathan Healey nearly ran us over with my quad bike. You could say it was a bit of an adventure."

"Told you that we'd never find the Wild Cat of Dirgelmor," said Brandon, looking slightly down.

Suddenly, Archie pretended to pounce on him, teeth bared, as though he was going to take a bite out of poor Brandon, who screamed his head off at the shock!

Everyone burst out laughing and eventually Brandon joined in.

The End


End file.
